Field of the Invention
This is a continuation application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/924,743, filed on Oct. 26, 2007, by Christopher James Dawson, et al. The present invention relates generally to “Virtual World” system technologies, Massively Multiplayer Online Role Playing systems, and the like.
Background of the Invention
Whereas the determination of a publication, technology, or product as prior art relative to the present invention requires analysis of certain dates and events not disclosed herein, no statements made within this Background of the Invention shall constitute an admission by the Applicants of prior art unless the term “Prior Art” is specifically stated. Otherwise, all statements provided within this Background section are “other information” related to or useful for understanding the invention.
“Virtual Worlds”, also sometimes referred to as “Massively Multi-Player Online Role Playing Games” (“MMPorg”) systems, are well known in the art for their ability to allow users, or “players”, to assume a virtual identity, and to interact through that identity with the system's logic as well as with other users or players through their own virtual identities. Some of the presently available Virtual World systems and products include, but are not limited to, Second Life™, MindArk PE AB's Intropia™, and Makena Technologies' There<dot>com™, where <dot> represents the period or dot character “.”.
By configuring the virtual identity, a user is enabled to create a persona of his or her liking, and to interact within the virtual world and the other users, who are also represented by their own virtual avatars and identities. Most Virtual World's allow the user to select or create a three-dimensional representation of his or her virtual identity, referred to as an “avatar”. Avatars can be realistic in their appearance, or can be a fantasy creature. Other characteristics, such as movement speed and restrictions, communications abilities, and interaction limitations or abilities, can be defined for a user's virtual identity.
Even though these types of virtual worlds began as gaming and role playing products, they have now evolved into useful platforms for other purposes. One such purpose is an evolution of online meetings, online conferences, online customer service, and online training or education.
Previous products directed towards these purposes were based on presenting the real voice and/or real image of each “attendee” to an online meeting, either through sharing of still photos of each attendee, or through use of webcams to transmit live images. Communications were enabled through simultaneous use of telephone lines, or through use of voice-over-Internet-Protocol (“VoIP”) and/or text messaging.
These conferencing systems offer many advantages, such as saving travel costs, allowing quicker dissemination of information, and fostering near-face-to-face relationships, but one draw back of such online meetings is that there is little or no sensation of community during the online conference—each attendee still feels as if he or she is using a computer alone to converse with the other attendees.
With the evolution of Virtual World's into this manner of usage (i.e. virtual conferencing rather than virtual gaming), many of these issues are resolved because there is a greater sense of community or social interaction as the experience is much more complete and realistic. Each attendee feels much more immersed in the meeting virtual environment, including the virtual conference room or space, and each attendee has a greater sensation of the other attendees' presence because each attendee has a virtual position within the group of attendees, which cannot be had from a standard web meeting.
Further, the facilities issue is alleviated through hosting meetings, training, and conferences in Virtual World's. Rather than renting expensive meeting facilities, and providing expensive real display fixtures and furniture, a company can configure a virtual meeting in a virtual world which has all of the “appearance” factors as desired at a fraction of the costs of a corresponding real-world conference room. Even better, the virtual conference room can be reconfigured as needed, such as expanding the virtual conference room when a larger-than-expected attendee group “signs up” to attend.
Since many original virtual worlds did not restrict where players could “go” within the world, except for restrictions placed on certain levels or privileges for each player, in order to host business-to-business functions, some modifications to the virtual world systems were made.
Chief among these modifications were definitions and controls put in place to allow definition of “private virtual worlds”, where one or more users could control which other users could “enter” the private virtual world. This allows a company such as International Business Machines to create multiple private virtual worlds within a virtual world system, such as SecondLife™, for the purposes of employee training, customer meetings, etc., without the concern for third-parties accessing sensitive or confidential information.